Jake Jabs’ philosophy about money is that he likes to make it, but he doesn’t need it much. The furniture baron owns one suit, which he rarely wears. He drives a 7-year-old Chevy Yukon. He would rather give away money than spend it.

It’s the largest single donation in CU Denver history. The money will be designated for the business school’s entrepreneurship program.

That’s right up Jabs’ alley.

“What we need in America is more entrepreneurs,” said Jabs, 82, founder and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse.

The idea for the gift originated from a friendship Jabs struck with Madhavan Parthasarathy, director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at CU Denver.

Jabs has been an occasional guest lecturer at the school. When Parthasarathy told him of a desire to expand the program, Jabs stepped up.

Effective July 1, the center will be renamed the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship.

Jabs in 2011 gave $25 million to fund the development of a new business school at his alma mater, Montana State University.

In an interview this week at American Furniture Warehouse headquarters in Arapahoe County, Jabs said that a spirit of entrepreneurism allowed him to rise from a poor family with eight siblings to become a successful business owner.

“I started with nothing and built this all myself,” he said.

American Furniture Warehouse operates 12 stores in Colorado and plans to open a new outlet later this year in Phoenix. 2012 sales were $352 million.

Jabs’ advice to students and prospective business owners: “Live below your means, keep your credit good and pay cash when you buy a car. Not having debt really helped me get to where I am.”

Proceeds from the CU Denver gift will be used to expand the school’s annual business plan competition, build an events center at the business school in lower downtown, fund faculty research grants and hire staff to raise visibility of the school.

“We are the ninth-largest graduate business school in the nation, but nobody knows it,” Parthasarathy said. “We want to become the hub of entrepreneurship.”

Until the Jabs gift, the school’s largest donation was $5.5 million from JP Morgan.

“These types of gifts are increasingly important as institutions rely on private support to help develop and grow programs and hire top-notch faculty,” said Pamela Russell, director of communications at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

In terms of magnitude among university donations in the U.S., Russell described the $10 million as “not uncommon, but it is significant and shows positive stewardship of donors.”

This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a copy editing error, the source of a $5.5 million donation to the University of Colorado Denver Business School was incorrect. JP Morgan was the donor.

$25 million

Amount Jake Jabs donated in 2011 to develop a new business school at Montana State University, his alma mater

More in News

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Saturday there was “incontrovertible” evidence of a Russian plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election, a blunt statement that shows how significantly the new criminal charges leveled by an American investigator have upended the political debate over his inquiry.

The University of Colorado leadership is grappling with how to address a nationwide nosedive in the favorability of higher education — particularly, among conservatives — as CU’s own representatives and decision-makers disagree on what’s behind the downturn.